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A TREATISE

OF

The primeval Estate of the first Man. Of the Manner how Sin found Entrance into, and is propagated in the World. Of the Nature of Sin. Of our first Servitude to it. Of that poor Remnant of Freewill left in the Sons of Adam, with Directions to use it aright, and how we are set free by the Son of God. Of Mortification. Of the right Use of Reason, or Rules of Art, for determining Doubts in Divinity, &c.

1

It was a very wise saying of one, who (if we may approve Julius Scaliger's censure of him) was none of the wisest doctors, Tractare res humanas norunt plurimi, æstimare paucissimia. To attain unto a large measure of skill or cunning, whether in contriving or managing mundane or merely human affairs, is a matter more easy or more common, than to be able to set a just price or estimate, whether upon the things or works themselves, or upon the artificer's skill in contriving or working them. This maxim is altogether as The general true, and somewhat more improvable in businesses full scope of sacred, especially in such as have been heretofore handled in part, and come now to be further discussed. The first part of the KNOWLEDGE of JESUS CHRIST, and of him crucified, raised from the dead, &c., is a great deal more easily learned, than the second, unto which a Cardanus in lib. de Utilitate ex adversis capienda.

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these present meditations are addressed. The first part of this heavenly knowledge consists principally in the display of the harmony between the prophetical and evangelical writings, or the parallels between matters of fact recorded in the Old Testament, and the events answering in proportion to them in the New, already exhibited, and further to be accomplished before the end of this world, or in the world to come.

2. The second part of the KNOWLEDGE of CHRIST consists in the true estimate or experimental valuation of his death and sufferings, of his resurrection from the 2 dead, and exercise of his everlasting sacerdotal function. To this latter part of the knowledge of Christ and him crucified, &c., that knowledge which in philosophy or in other sciences we call a posteriori, that is, which we gather from the effect, or learn by experience, doth answer in a true kind of subproportion. Unto this second part of the knowledge of Christ somewhat more is required than hath been expressed in the former part; betwixt which and those scientifical conclusions in sciences which we call a priori there is perfect analogy or correspondency; somewhat, or a great deal more, than such knowledge of God and of his providence, as most of the schoolmen or historians, whether ecclesiastical or secular, do present unto us.

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3. Ut Deum cognoscas (saith an ancient and pious ourselves fatherb) teipsum prius cognosce: we must learn to method to know ourselves before we can attain unto the true or or Christ perfect knowledge of God, whether as he is our Creator, our Redeemer, or our Sanctifier. And this true knowledge of ourselves hath a double aspect, the one unto the estate from which, the other unto the estate into which we are fallen. The chief, if not the only reason, why the Godhead or eternal Sonship of Christ Jesus

b Cyprian.

is, in this last age questioned, why his meritorious satisfaction for the sins of the world is by some flatly denied, is, because the parties this way peccant, or such as can with Christian patience or without disgust, read or hear their discourses, do not know themselves either in the individual, as they are mortal men, and tainted with many actual sins, or in the general, as they are the sons of Adam. They understand not the prerogatives that man had in his first creation above other creatures; nor yet trouble their thoughts how that which they and we call sin found first entrance into the world; how it hath been propagated throughout all mankind; or what be the special properties, the true effects, or power of it. Now without the knowledge or serious consideration of all these points, it is impossible for us, for any man, to take a true, much less a full or competent estimate of Christ's sufferings upon the cross; or of the efficacy of his resurrection from the dead; of the fruits of the Spirit, which he promised to all his followers, upon his ascension into heaven, and sitting at the right hand of God the Father.

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Of the first Man's Estate, and the Manner how he lost it. How Sin found Entrance into the World. Of the Nature of Sin. How it was, and is, propagated unto Adam's Posterity.

More contention

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CHAP. I.

Of the primeval Estate of the first Man, and of the Variety of Opinions about it.

1. ABOUT the prerogatives or preeminences of the first than con- man, over and above all others, which by natural descent have sprung from him, a great variety of first man's opinions there is, more than is about the limitation or extent of the prerogative royal in most kingdoms Christian, as now they stand. But the several opinions contained within this great and spacious variety, concerning the estate or prerogatives of the first man, are (in my opinion) very compatible: few or none of them contradict others. And it is the part of divines by profession, not to sow any seeds of contention between the authors or abettors of several opinions, which in their nature imply no contradiction. Yea in times ancient and unpartial, it hath been accounted one special part of priests or professed divines, to solicit or mediate for compromise between parties at difference, whether in matters civil or criminally capital; much more to endeavour for reconciliation of opinions or controversies properly belonging to their own profession.

2. Now it is confessed by all good Christians, that the first man was made in or according to the image

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